Note: With the demise of the monthly contest, I decided to post the unfinished fanfics that I had been working on for that contest...

This is one I was working on for the August 2009 and October 2011 contests which had themes of doubles causing an issue and characters dealing with a dilemma respectively.

Star Trek: Dyson Sphere: MultiplicityPart 1

15 August 2419A not so average forest on an ‘island’ in the Dyson Sphere
“Exploration Team Hector Commander’s Log;Stardate 86581.5.This is our second day since we left the Hector on our journey towards the unusual subspace energy reading located deep in a forest. A forest so thick that the Hector could not land any closer to the unknown phenomenon, or technology, than it did. We are about to set out again after our night’s rest.”

The Exploration Team Commander, Commander Zachary Samuels, finished the log recording on his PADD and looked around to check that the Exploration team had finished packing the campsite.
He saw that they had. “We are ready to set out sir,” his second in command,Weralla Vanessa, said.

5 hours later the Exploration team approached the energy reading. “Report,” Samuels said.
Weralla and a few other team members looked at theirtricorders and conferred.

“The reading is localised 50 meters ahead,” another of the team members, Sara T’Elanna, said.

“Let’s go,” Samuels said.

1 minute later they found the source of the energy reading. It was a structure that looked like a stone doorway, with an instrument panel that also looked like stone on the side of one of the pillars.
“This is the source of the energy reading. Some sort of gateway by the looks of it. But there is no indication of Iconian technology,” Weralla said.

T’Elanna pressed a button on the instrument panel...

Suddenly the energy levels increased and the ‘gateway’ shook.
“T’Elanna! How many times I have said to not touch the artefacts before a through investigation!” Samuels said.

“Sorry sir,” T’Elanna said.

There was a WEERWERZEEZ as the device powered up, and a field of white light appeared in the gateway...

“Interesting, the field in the doorway does not register on my scanner,” T’Elanna said.

“Let’s back off from this shall we?” Samuels asked.

The team backed off from the gateway, but then something happened. With a scream, a person arrived through the gateway.

“This cannot be!” T’Elanna said, as she looked at the other person.
“And yet it is,” Weralla said.

The person who had come through the gateway was a splitting image of Sara T’Elanna...

“An alternate reality?” the double of T’Elanna asked herself.

“It appears so,” the T’Elanna who was there to begin with said.

...

The team was stupefied, each member was wondering what to do with the alternate T’Elanna, whom had appeared a few minutes before.

‘We have to see if she can be sent back the same way she came here.’T’Elanna said.

“That’s obvious!” the alternate T’Elanna said.

T’Elanna looked at her other self. She looked exactly the same, down to the hair colouring and style, and the small tattoos on her earlobes. ‘The other universe might not be that different,’ she thought. “Let me guess, you were about to touch a control on the device?” she asked.

“Yes!” the alternate T’Elanna said.

“Right,” Weralla said.

“And then the gateway opened, and I stumbled through,” the alternate T’Elanna said.

“It’s like I’m seeing double, we need a way to tell you apart.” Samuels said.

“I am reading a divergent quantum signature, sir,” T’Elanna said as she scanned her alternate self with her tricorder.

“I meant visually, lieutenant,” Samuels said. He noted that both T’Elanna’s had the same rank.

“I could take my uniform jacket off,” the alternate T’Elanna said.

“No, not a good idea in this environment,” Samuels said. ‘So I’m the team leader in the alternate reality, that’s not unexpected.’

“There are other ways to distinguish yourself visually,” T’Elanna said.

“I knew you would say that,” the alternate T’Elanna said. She unclipped her hair from the clips, letting it fall over her ears. “Like this?”

“It will have to do,” T’Elanna said, leaving her hair in the clips for the moment.

“I agree,” Samuels said.

“Now that’s settled, we need to find a way to send her home,” Weralla said.

“Definitely,” the alternate T’Elanna said stridently.

“Which control did you press?” the original T’Elanna asked.

“None,” the alternate said.

“Oh, yeah,” Sara said, remembering what the other had said.

“Which control did you press?” Alt T’Elanna said, echoing her doppleganger.

“This one,” Sara said, hovering her finger over the control.

“There’s no guarantee that pressing it again would open it to my universe,” Alt T’Elanna said.

“I would agree,” Samuels said.

“We have to examine it more closely,” Alt T’Elanna said.

“We can stay here for a week before we have to head back to the Hector,” Samuels said.

“If the supply situation is the same, we could stay ten days at a stretch,” Alt T’Elanna said.

“We could leave you and our T’Elanna here in six days and head back to the Hector for more supplies. It can stay on station for a year at a stretch.”

“It shouldn’t take that long,” Sara said.

“Let’s get to it then,” AltT’Elanna said.

Half an hour of attempting to decipher the symbols later, the T’Elanna’s were ready to give their first attempt.

“We have cross-referenced the layout of the panel with known Iconian designs. Although this isn’t Iconian, there are enough in common to give this a try,” Weralla said.

“Give it a go,” Samuels ordered.

T’Elanna Prime stood at the control panel, while her alternate stood in front of the Gateway where she had emerged. Given the positioning of the control panel, they stood to the side of each other.

“Ready?” Alt T’Elenna asked.

“I’m ready,” T’Elanna Prime said. She input a sequence she was sure said ‘Manual Override’ and pressed the same button…